Two Hundred and Counting
by Marki Sallo
Summary: Spyro and his friends must collect two hundred Light Gems so that a new dragon, Stryke, can return to Convexity and end the Dark Master once and for all. Rated T for some romance and violence. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1: Transporter Tribulations

_Two Hundred and Counting_

by Marki Sallo

NOTE: Spyro, Ember, the Professor, Hunter, and other Spyro the Dragon related characters, places, etc. are not mine. Stryke is, however, an original creation. Any bearing to persons real or fictional is completely unintentional.

CHAPTER I - _Transporter Tribulations_

The Professor was hard at work on his latest invention, the Twister. It had a very simple purpose: to twist the delicate sub-atomic particles for his Spinner. The Spinner was quite simple as well; it spun those particles for the Zapper. And, naturally, the Zapper wasn't very complex either: it simply cooled those molecules into a liquid state. The liquid then traveled down the Spouter into a cup. The end result was a nice cup of coffee.

The elderly mole finished tightening the last screw of the Twister and set the contraption onto the elaborate (but simple) coffeemaker. He was about to flip the power switch to the 'on' position and give it a try when the Transporter activated. Instead of activating the machine, the surprised Professor only managed to fall into the Zapper and wreck it.

"Oh, if that's Spyro playing with the system at this hour," the Professor said in his somewhat-angry voice (he was really too nice to ever become more than somewhat-angry), "I'll revoke his transportation privileges! Honestly, island-hopping a little after midnight!" He walked over to the Transporter room door and opened it. "Spyro, you're not supposed to be playing with the system after ten," he said without looking at the Transporter.

"I'm not Spyro," said a male voice unlike Spyro's. The Professor looked up at the speaker and jumped backward into the Inker (which promptly sprayed black ink all over his lab coat). "And this certainly doesn't look like Convexity."

The mole examined the dragon standing on the Transporter's center pad. He was tall and quite strong-looking (of course, _most_ dragons looked awful powerful to the Professor), with visible muscles and a long, sinuous tail. The scales covering his body were all a nice shade of blue, starting at sky blue near his wings and deepening to a dark blue at his tail and snout. Or at least the Professor _assumed_ that he was blue-scaled all over. The dragon was wearing a snow-colored uniform with holes for his tail and large wings. The deep green eyes fixated on the mole. "Erm, are you just going to stand there and look at me? Haven't you ever seen a dragon before?"

The Professor straightened out his lab coat, getting his paws inky. "I have, but certainly none with such...dress. Actually, thinking on it, I don't think I've ever seen a dragon with clothes before. What's your name?"

"I'm Stryke," answered Stryke. He stepped off of the Transporter and then whipped around when it activated again. The Professor was used to surprises now and simply waited to see what would happen. When a certain purple dragon appeared, he immediately launched into a five minute lecture on the rules and regulations for using the Transporter. Throughout the entire speech, Spyro simply sat on his haunches and stared at Stryke.

"Yeah, okay," Spyro said quickly during a pause in the mole's reprimand, "I won't do it again. Who's this?"

"My name is Stryke," repeated the blue dragon. He sounded slightly annoyed. "And since I've answered the same question twice, could someone _please_ tell me where we are?"

The Professor grabbed his clipboard from its spot on a desk nearby and made a small note. "You're in the Dragon Realms, Stryke. The Kingdoms, in particular."

"Wow, you're _tall_," noted Spyro. Stryke looked down at the purple dragon and raised an eyebrow. "Just sayin'," he quickly added.

"Okay. So, how did I get to the Dragon Realms from that Transporter in the Dante's Freezer Outpost? I _thought_ I told it to take me to Convexity!" Stryke's long tail flicked from side to side. "Stupid Transporters. Well, I'll just be heading back now. Sorry for the whole surprise thing." Stryke stepped back onto the central pad. Spyro and the Professor watched as absolutely nothing happened. "Okay, _now_ what's wrong with this thing?!"

Spyro padded over to one of the Chargers of the Transporter. "Maybe it's this fuse that seems to have blown," he said. The Professor walked over, shrugged, and made another note on his pad. He then took out a pocket calculator, spent three minutes typing in numbers, and then nodded.

"According to my calculations, it will take two hundred Light Gems to fix the Transporter system. The whole thing is completely down. _Someone_ made it crash by teleporting around after hours." The mole looked accusingly at the two dragons.

"He did it," both said at the same time, pointing claws at the other.

"Well, then maybe you should _both_ go and collect them," offered the Professor. "Take along Cynder and Ember. I suspect Flame'll want to go along as well. The more the merrier, right?"

Spyro sighed. "I just got back from savin' the Realms from Red, and now I gotta go and collect two hundred Light Gems? Come on! That's not fair."

"Hey," complained Stryke, "I've got a pretty important job to do in Convexity. Isn't there another Transporter I could use around here?"

The Professor shook his large head. "No, I'm afraid that you've halted the entire system. And I'm _not_ going to be the one to fix it again."

"Where are we gonna find Light Gems? I just cleaned the Realms out of them to power your Gadgets." Spyro scratched an itch with his hind leg. "There might not be any left."

"I'm certain that there are still Light Gems around, Spyro," answered the Professor. He made yet another note on the clipboard and walked over to the Inker. "You'll just have to look. Maybe the Atlawa have enough of them. Go check out Tall Plains."

Spyro yawned, stretching his orange wings. "I guess we can start in the morning." He lay down on the ground and curled up, falling asleep in seconds. The Professor glared at him for a few moments before sighing loudly.

"Stryke, could you please move Spyro out of my lab?" he asked without turning around, examining the Inker. "He's not supposed to sleep in here."

Stryke let out a loud sigh of his own and picked up Spyro. The purple dragon was surprisingly light, especially to the strong soldier. "I _always _get the short straw," he growled, as he carried Spyro out of the lab and into the grass plain.


	2. Chapter 2: Ember

CHAPTER II - EMBER 

Stryke woke up suddenly when something walked over his tail. He growled and reached inside his uniform, but checked the motion when he realized that it was just a stupid sheep. He had barely closed his eyes when something _heavier_ stepped on him. It was Spyro this time.

The young dragon was running about, chasing the frightened animal. A golden dragonfly flew just behind Spyro, following him. "Come on, you can run faster than that," it said in a mellow, surfer-type accent. "Run! Run like Ember's chasing you or something!"

Spyro let out an audible yelp of fear and closed with the sheep rapidly. He tackled it, knocking the animal over. It made a pathetic baaing noise and exploded into a butterfly. The dragonfly chased the little insect down and devoured it.

"Wow," said Stryke, getting up, "you're up awful early." He checked the watch on his wrist. It displayed 0553 in friendly green numerals. "I only thought we soldiers got up this early. It's only about ten minutes to six!"

Spyro sat down on the grass and yawned. "Sparx wanted something to eat, but he's too weak to actually hunt for himself." The dragonfly zipped around to Spyro's front, illuminating Spyro's snout in a yellow light.

"Me, weak? Pah," Sparx scoffed. Now that he was hovering, Stryke could see the actual insect inside the shimmering light. "I saved the Atlawa from certain destruction. _They_ wanted to worship me. _They_ respected me."

"You're _still_ going on about that?" Spyro yawned again and showed Sparx his teeth. The dragonfly made a choking sound and waved one of his hands in front of his nose.

"Man, when was the last time you brushed?" asked Sparx. He flew right into Spyro's open mouth. The dragon's eyes widened, looking around wildly. "Wow, is that a piece of a Gnorc in here? When did you eat that? And...darn! I didn't know you ate lobsters!"

Stryke smiled slightly, checking his watch again. 0556. "Sparx, why don't you get out of Spyro's mouth? He'll probably eat you or something."

Sparx poked his head out from Spyro's still-gaping muzzle. "Nah," he said, "Spyro wouldn't do that. Right, Spyro?" Spyro got an evil look on his face, the corners of his mouth turning upward into a smile. "_Right,_ Spyro?" Sparx asked again. "When you don't answer me in situations like this, that usually mea-"

Spyro closed his mouth. He kept it closed for a good minute before finally allowing the dragonfly to get free. Sparx flew out of Spyro's mouth and fell to the grass. "Gee, Sparx," Spyro laughed, "maybe you shouldn't fly into dragons' snouts. They might not LIKE someone commenting on the cleanliness of their molars." Sparx's only reply was in the form of a long, loud gasp.

The blue dragon watched the pair for another moment before shaking his head. _This little side-trip should be interesting, _he decided, _especially when Hunter gets here._ Stryke gazed at the horizon, watching the sun slowly rise above the mountains. His watch chirped a minute or so later.

Spyro looked up. "Is it six o'clock?" He leapt to his feet and started looking around in a panic. "Is it six o'clock?" he asked again. Sparx picked himself up off the ground and hovered around Spyro.

"Yeah, it's about six," answered Stryke. The dragon scratched the back of his head, non-plussed. "Why? What happens at six?" Just in case, Stryke reached into his uniform.

"_SPYYYYYYYYYYYYYYROOOOOOO_!"

The loud and feminine voice echoed over the plains. Spyro's eyes became very wide. The purple dragon made a whimpering sound and bolted away to the north. Sparx did not follow; instead, he simply flew over to Stryke's shoulder. A few moments later, a pinkish dragon came running by. She did not even notice Stryke as she tore off in the general direction of Spyro. "Spyro! Come back here," she shouted after him.

"Who's that?" Stryke asked. He watched the female chase Spyro even as he made a complete turn to face the blue dragon and Sparx.

The dragonfly chuckled. "That would be Ember. See, Ember likes Spyro, but Spyro likes Cynder. And Cynder doesn't like Spyro much; she prefers Flame. But guess what? Flame likes Ember. It's a regular love triangle."

"Actually, that would be a love _quadrilateral_," corrected Stryke. His eyes followed the young dragons as they raced by, Ember slowly closing with Spyro.

Sparx shrugged. "Whatever. I just hope Hunter gets here soon. He usually can get them to stop."

"Hunter?" Stryke turned his head to look at Sparx, nearly hitting him with his snout. "Cheetah, about as tall as me? Yellow fur?"

"Watch it, big nose," Sparx complained, "but yeah. That sounds like Hunter. Why, do you know him or something?"

Spyro tripped over a rock and fell to the ground. He groaned, looking over his shoulder. His eyes widened as Ember squealed happily and leapt into the air. She tackled him, laughing. "Good morning, Spyro!"

"Hunter and I go pretty far back," answered Stryke. The blue dragon leaned against the wall of the Professor's laboratory and watched Spyro and Ember amusedly. "We fought together in a war. Killed lots of Meerliks."

"Yeah. That's nice." Sparx flitted over to where Spyro was trying to get out from under Ember. The pink dragon was trying to tickle him. "Alright, you two," he said in a loud voice, "let's break it up. Keep it G-rated. You're only...what? Ten? Eleven?"

Spyro twisted around, pulling his sensitive wings away from Ember. "I'm fourteen and she's thirteen," he responded, out of breath. "C'mon Ember, just stop for now."

"Aw," Ember whined, "Spyro, don't you _want_ me to tickle you? Isn't it _fun_?" She giggled in a high voice and batted her eyes at the purple male. Spyro got to his feet and brushed some grass from his haunches.

"It's _kinda_ fun," Spyro admitted, "but we need to be serious right now. The Professor wants us to go to Tall Plains and get two hundred Light Gems. We gotta fix the Transporter grid."

Ember sat down on the grass, catching her breath. The chase had tired her out as well. "Oooh! Can I come?"

"The Professor wants _all_ of us to go on his quest to recover the gems," Sparx explained. "All of us means you, Spyro, Cynder, Flame, Hunter, and that other dragon over there near the lab. He's...uh..." Sparx realized that he didn't even know Stryke's name. "Hey, you! Big...blue...guy."

Stryke walked over lazily, stretching his wings. "Stryke's my name. And yeah, I'm helping you get the gems. If the Atlawa don't have them, I bet I can work something out with the Manweersmalls."

"Good. So we have a plan 'B' now," Spyro surmised. "Not that anything will go wrong with the first one...I hope."

"Do Cynder and Flame _have_ to come with us?" whined Ember again. She did not seem particularly happy with the arrangement. "Cynder distracts Spyro and Flame...well, Flame seems to like to follow me around."

Stryke glanced at Sparx for a moment before replying. "Explain."

"Well," began Sparx, believing that _he_ was supposed to explain, "Spyro likes Cynder. As in _like_. Not quite _like like_, as Cynder would have to at least like _like_ him back. Since Cynder only likes Spyro as a friend, Spyro can only _like_ like Cynder.

"On the other hand, you've got Flame. Flame likes Ember, but Ember likes Spyro. It's really like the Spyro-Cynder situation. In fact, they all like someone who likes someone else. Now, in the case of Spyro, he-" Sparx took a deep breath.

Spyro swatted the dragonfly with his tail just as he was about to start speaking again. "Sparx, _shut up_. I don't say that very often, do I?"

"No," Sparx admitted from the ground, the wind knocked out of him. "No, you don't."

"And it's usually for a good reason, right?"

"Yeah. Well, there _was_ that bar in the city when you told me to-" Spyro raised his tail above Sparx, who promptly said, "Yeah. It is. Hey! Your cheeks are turning red. Doesn't that usually mean that you're-"

Spyro let his tail fall, crashing into Sparx. "Yeah. There goes my mouth again," the dragonfly said in muffled tones.

Ember looked horrified. "_Spyro_! How could you? Imagine, my boyfriend running around in a city bar..."

"I'm not your boyfriend!" Spyro retorted, his tail lashing. Sparx took off into the air, not wasting his chance at freedom. "I can do what I want."

"I know what you _need_..." Ember said quietly, inching toward Spyro. Spyro noticed this and moved backward until he bumped into Stryke. The blue dragon refused to move, effectively blocking Spyro. Ember stopped with her snout just inches from Spyro's. "You need-"

"_FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUEL_!" shouted someone from above. Stryke's head jerked up, sighting a yellow cheetah in the sky. He wore a jetpack, which was flaring sporadically. "_I NEED FUUUUUUUUUUUUEL_!" The jetpack cut out completely, sending the cheetah downward.

Ember blinked as everyone got out of the way of the cheetah's probable 'landing' spot. "Well, I was going to say that you needed some _love_, but I guess '_fuel_' could work too. Hey, where are you all going?" She stood up and moved over to Spyro.

The yellow cheetah crashed into the area where Ember had been sitting before, rolling over a few times. He came to a rest, lying still. Stryke was the first to react, letting out a long whistle. He walked over to the cheetah and leaned over. "Oh, hey, Hunter," Stryke said when he recognized Hunter, "I haven't seen you in a long time."

"Uh," groaned Hunter. His eyes fluttered open. "Wow. Am I...dead? I thought you were dead, Stryke. There was a bomb, and a-a Meerlik, and you were out of ammo, and-"

"I defused the bomb and you shot the Meerlik in the head," Stryke finished, offering Hunter a claw up. "Which is why we're still here. You're not dead yet, you old cat."

Hunter grasped the blue dragon's claw and managed to stand. "So man, how've you been doing? I see you're hanging out with my friends."

"Pressed into service, to be more accurate. We have to collect two hundred Light Gems."

"Oh? What happened now?"

By now, Spyro, Ember and Sparx had recovered from Hunter's sudden (though rather pathetic) appearance. "Stryke broke the Transporter," Spyro said.

"I did not," Stryke answered immediately, turning around to glare at the purple dragon. "And even if I _did_, it would be for a perfectly good reason."

"I sense a cutscene coming on," Sparx sighed, fluttering near Spyro's wings. "Since Cydner and Flame probably won't get here for awhile, we have time. So let's hear it, blue boy. What amazing and wonderful feat did you have to do that was so important to the world that you had to break the Transporter system?"

Stryke grinned. "I was going to kill the Dark Master."

Sparx, for once, had no reply.


	3. Chapter 3: Someone Set Up Him the Bomb

CHAPTER III - SOMEONE SET UP THE DARK MASTER THE BOMB

"I'm a soldier in the Army of the Republic. Personally, I'm not really surprised that none of you have heard of the Republic before. We're a nation of dragons and other races somewhere west of here. _Far _west. Like, 'Across the Ocean of No Return' west. On the other claw, I'm kinda surprised that Hunter never mentioned anything about it. But hey, that's his own thing.

"So the Republic is fighting the Dark Master's minions. We're kicking tails and taking nametags when this huge black dragon suddenly appears. It nails half of our offensive power with fire-breath that _somehow_ manages to melt combat steel. Of course, the _other_ half of our offense and the _entire_ defensive line start shooting at it. End result: it gets pretty mad and retreats. You were there for that, Hunter."

"Yeah," Hunter replied, "I remember that. Wasted half of a magazine of ammo trying to unjam my sniper. Did they ever fix that?"

"What, the M9A1s? Those _were _pretty bad once they jammed the first time. I haven't been on the sniper track for a _long_ time, but I think the M9A3 corrected it. But anyway, back to the story. We think the war's over, and that victory is ours.

"Three days later, we get swarmed again at a place called Custer's First Point. There were _millions_ of these little meerkat-like guys. Armed with little axes. They ran around screaming '_Death to dragons_!' and would kinda hack at you until you blew a body part off. They weren't much of a threat in singles, pairs, trios...even hundreds. But millions of 'em...

"We just ran out of ammo. The machine guns died first, so we left them and fell back to Custer's Second Point. We got into the defenses there until _they_ ran dry. Then it was on to Custer's Third Point. Same deal. We keep pouring lead into them, killing thousands. And they keep coming!

"Our forces finally got to Custer's Last Stand about seven retreats later. That place is only about seven miles away from the city, so we were getting nervous. This time, when the machine guns went empty, we took out our rifles and held our ground. Almost as if a god was watching over us, the Meerliks stopped swarming while we still had a bit of rifle ammo left."

"Wasn't that when the big black dragon came out again?" asked Hunter.

"Yeah. So the dragon appears in the sky again, roaring at us. We roar back, supporting it with a sustained rifle fire that lasted about two seconds. So now we're completely out of ammo. Well, except one of us."

"I wasn't being a coward," Hunter said quickly, "my stupid rifle jammed. So I spent the last six retreats trying to fix it. _Finally_ I manage to clear the barrel just as everyone else stops firing. I turn around, look down the scope" -- Hunter was pantomiming the actions -- "say 'Eat _this_!' and pull the trigger. I shot him in the nose. He didn't like that very much."

"Actually, you tripped over my tail as you spun around, screamed 'I don't _wanna_ die!' when you pulled the trigger, and shot him in the eye," Stryke corrected. "So you lose two points of coolness but gain one back for an eyeshot. You're still in the negatives. But Hunter _did_ get the dragon to retreat again.

"So we decide to celebrate that night in the officer's club. Hunter drinks a lot of the cheap stuff and goes to the 'facilities'. He never comes back. So _now _I know where you went." Stryke scratched his head. "How did you end up here from a bathroom?"

"It's an even longer story. Let's just say it involved some toilet paper, water, and an electrical socket." Eager to change the subject (everyone was now looking at him strangely), Hunter said, "So what happened after I left?"

"Not much. The Dark Master left us alone until about a week ago. That's partially why I'm here; I was sent to Convexity as part of an elite team. 'Course, only four of us could actually _fly_ into Convexity. And only _I_ could fit into the Dark Master's fortress entrance carrying the bomb. So I was there, alone, fighting off massive amounts of Meerliks, with this huge package between my wings. I finally get to the Dark Master's chamber to discover that he's huge. And by huge, I mean _HUGE_! We're talking the size of a building, here. I was confused at first, wondering why he didn't notice me. I mean, I _did_ just kill his guards and break into his chamber.

"I realized that he was sleeping. Not one to pass up an opportunity for a simple kill, I tugged the bomb off of my back, set it up next to the Dark Master, and started to input the arming code. I was about to enter the last number and blow him into small radioactive pieces when my Transporter Gadget suddenly activates. I'm back at the outpost, but there's no one there. I try to get back and finish the job, but I somehow get pulled here."

No one responded for a moment. Finally, Sparx said, "Okay. Um, yeah, I lost you after 'electrical socket'. No offense or anything."

Ember had fallen asleep on Spyro's shoulder. He was looking at her with vague horror, his eyes wide. "Sparx, he was trying to get rid off the Dark Master. You have the attention span of a-" Spyro stopped suddenly as Ember's head slowly turned. She pushed into his neck, eyes still closed.

"You smell really nice, Spyro," she purred. Spyro's eye twitched.

"Get. Off. Of. Me. Now." he said in a controlled voice. Ember obeyed, sitting back upright. She sniffed, still smiling, as Spyro got to his own four feet. "Okay. Let's head out now. Those two hundred gems won't collect themselves, will they?

"Aren't you supposed to wait for us?" rasped a female voice from somewhere behind Hunter. The cheetah turned around and noticed a black and an orange dragon.

"Oh, there's Cynder and Flame now," Hunter announced, rather needlessly. Ember had visibly turned a peculiar shade of dark pink, whereas Spyro became a reddish-purple. "So we _can_ move out." The cheetah picked up his jetpack and pulled out the fuel container. He shook it up, flipped it over, and reinserted it. A little bar on the harness went from empty to full again. Hunter was about to leap into the air when he realized something and asked a question about it.

"Where are we going, anyway?"


End file.
